


In The Stars

by birdsandivory



Series: Voltron Drabbles [3]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Heart-to-Heart, Mother-Son Relationship, Platonic Relationships, Post War, Sheith if you squint, Stargazing, no matter what, plus krolia is just amazing and i want her, their bond is, this is more about how strong, to get her limelight
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-01
Updated: 2019-02-01
Packaged: 2019-10-12 19:49:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 697
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17473892
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/birdsandivory/pseuds/birdsandivory
Summary: Keith and Krolia talk about everything they're fine with leaving behind and what they want to come back to.





	In The Stars

**Author's Note:**

> Just a bittersweet drabble my friend Moosh requested on Tumblr! I really wanted an excuse to write something hopeful, littered with a bunch of pretty words.
> 
> Enjoy!

“If you choose to leave now, there is no going back. The chances that you will return to Earth are few; moments you will have to communicate — even more so.”

She looks to the stars as if she’s never truly seen them, and Keith supposes that it’s because she’s only known them as dying suns turned supernovae — too bright to be viewed by whim for existential enlightenment on cold, wintery nights. He appreciates this about her, because he understands the meaning of what lies beneath, how stargazing is nothing like being close to the universe; at least, not like they know it.

“I know what I’m asking for.”

And he does, because he’s been thinking about it for years — even before Kerberos, before Voltron, before the war. He’s been thinking about how he’s never belonged in any one place when it came to the compacted stardust that bore the name Gaia, how he’s never quite felt as much himself as he did fighting beside his mother, wild-eyed and free in ways no one could ever understand. It’s his purpose, he realizes, his will.

“Do you?” Her question sounds like he’d expect it would from any skeptical mom, and it almost makes him smile, because if he hadn’t been sure about running headfirst into almost any situation he wasn’t supposed to run into — he’d have never met Krolia. And that was enough for him to know that his decision is right. “What if you never return to these people you call friends? What if you can only say hello from the other side of a transmission? What then?”

“I’m doing this for them _and_ for me.” Keith replies easily, not because his confidence is reason for her to agree, but because it’s true. For what it’s worth, his friendships are everything to him; he cares for them all — he adores Pidge, he loves Shiro, he even respects Lance — there is nothing he wouldn’t do to keep them safe. But he knows he’ll do more good for them out there and it never hurt to find more of himself along the way. “We’re fighters. We don’t rest, we don’t settle, it’s not what we do.”

The world he came from doesn’t know his heart.

“How do you know that’s not what _I_ do?”

Her question puzzles him, and he feels like he’s being tested. Keith doesn’t particularly like it, he never has, but he lets himself be bitter for once out of reluctance to give her the chance to change his mind. “You didn’t stay before. Not for dad, and not for me.”

“Mmm.” She hums thoughtfully and actually smiles, though not quite as fierce and toothy as per usual; this one is soft, dancing from her eyes and into Keith’s heart like a warm embrace. “Then you understand. And you’ve made your decision, though this choice you wish to make will be a heavy, merciless burden.”

“All my _choices_ lead me to you, merciless they may be.” Huffing, he turns from her wistful expression to the sky. “And if I know my friends, all of their choices will lead them there.”

Keith points to the stars.

“But you will fail to see them for years to come, if you’re lucky enough to catch them across the galaxy.” There’s humor in her voice, and he’s beginning to think that it’s simply for argument’s sake.

“And when I do, we’ll be closer than ever.” He dreams of the future then, something unlike _Keith Kogane,_ painted in the color drip of remnants and nebulas, bound by ships created by more than man. As his breath becomes a visible fog clouding the constellations, he gazes back at Krolia, her eyes watching him intensely — searching for something they’ve long since found. “If there is ever a chance that I do come back, however far away that is — you would come back with me, wouldn’t you? If one day, you thought, maybe you’d leave the Blades behind?”

She stares with a silence that he cannot explain as the wind rustles the leaves of trees, both of them so very insignificant, huddled on rock and dirt and dust.

“All my choices lead me to you.”

**Author's Note:**

> Come scream with me on Tumblr! I am [birdsandivory](http://birdsandivory.tumblr.com).


End file.
